Why Dark Phoenix and Other X-Men Projects Are NOT Cancelled Due to the Disney-Fox Deal

The last couple weeks have been interesting for the Fox Marvel side of things. There was a completely bogus rumor last week that said both Dark Phoenix and New Mutants were cancelled. Obviously that went up in smoke pretty quickly after IMAX confirmed both were still coming in 2019 and Dark Phoenix is beginning reshoots soon in Montreal.

Now a new article has arrived from the Wall Street Journal that explains why Fox is still working on the X-Men movies and why they’re still acting like X-Force and movies such as Gambit may be made in the light of the Disney deal:

“Until the deal is done, however, Fox is obligated to keep acting as if it will survive, people who work at the studio say, which means making movies and developing new ideas with no certainty as to what Disney will end up doing with them.”

“Disney will release all of Fox’s movies that are complete or in production at the time of the acquisition, said a person with knowledge of its plans.”

Dark Phoenix isn’t due out until February, which is well before the deal will close so that will receive a theatrical release. New Mutants isn’t out until August, and that one is after the closure of the deal. It’s entirely possible New Mutants will be moved to either Hulu or the Disney streaming service that launches at the end of 2019 as Bob Iger said this week that they will use Fox content for their Direct to Consumer services.

And as they’re going to continue making movies, if X-Force does begin production before the end of the year it’s possible that movie will be finished and then given to Disney to put on one of the streaming services.

Basically this is saying that anything Fox makes prior to the deal closing in the first half of 2019 will probably see the light of day in one way or another. Any scheduled for a theatrical release before or around the closing will probably be seen in theaters. Anything else will likely end up on streaming.

Jeremy has been active on the web since the 90s. He once ran IGN DVD as well as other sites, and worked in the video game industry on Star Wars Galaxies. When he’s not pursing the future of Marvel movies, he studies computer programming.